Love At The Edge Of A Blade
by Hector Flores
Summary: Layfon has lived a life of constant combat, after events beyond his control he is forced to leave the city of his birth. He tries to find a new path in life but he is dragged into combat once again. Will he find love at the edge of a blade? (Layfon x Nina)
1. Chapter 1

I don't own Chrome Shelled Regios, this is a fanfiction only.

If there was anything in my life that always remained true it was that my life was never peaceful. My name is Layfon Alseif and some might consider me lucky and some others might consider me cursed. I was born in one of the strongest of the roaming cities, the city of Glendan. I was born and as soon as I was I had my parents taken from me by the enemy that I would spend most time of my life fighting against, it was a beast born from what people would say was the worst nightmares of mankind. The beasts are called contaminods.

The city of Glendan was a city that actively searched for contaminods and so fighting them became the most well-respected job one could have in the city. I was lucky that I was born with an almost natural instinct when it came to combat. As my adoptive father, Derk Saiharden used to joke I only needed to see a kei technique once and I would learn it.

Growing up with him I had many years of training but somehow I could never abandon the orphanage I spent the first five years of my life. I always tried to make extra money so I could donate it to the orphanage. Glendan had a very different physiology of life than you might have heard. The strong fight to survive and the weak die.

This physiology also meant that the royal family would never provide support for the orphanage and so it fell to people like me to provide the place with the funds to keep running. Leerin was the girl that through most of my childhood was both my friend and sister.

As I began fighting in underground arena fights my money situation became more stable with time. Since I was only a kid I became quite the attraction to the people betting and most importantly the people fighting in the arena pits. They figured a brat my age would be easy pickings, they never realized how wrong they were until they were about to lose their lives. These fights were no sporting match it was combat to the death.

As I began fighting more and more strong opponents I was able to constantly pick up techniques from them and as soon as I could incorporate them into my fighting style I killed my opponent in short working order. At the age of eight years, I was the undisputed champion of the underground arena pits. Since nobody bothered fighting me, I had to change jobs as it were.

I spent two whole years as a scouting mercenary, and let me tell you I was happy to be invited to take part of the Heaven Blade qualification tournament. Being a merc sounds fun sure, but the jobs they had me do were boring and the pay was nothing great.

I was able to win the tournament at the age of ten and I was awarded my Heaven Blade which was a rather nice sword, that is if you can get past the constant whispering and the limitless hunger of my blade for combat. The blade was sentient or so mine was and she for a lack of a better term was always asking me when we would fight a contaminoid.

Two years and I had formed sort of a brother like a relationship with several of the other Heaven Blade wielders, I unconsciously continued to learn their techniques and since the twelve Heaven Blades were in charge of killing the most dangerous of contaminoids it was not boring or badly paid.

During the following qualification tournament, I met someone I would never forget, and never forgive.

That is where my story begins and the most miserable day of my life. I live in the orphanage still even though I was adopted and my father is by far a great teacher, trainer and role model. I guess you can tell I am a little bit proud of the man that accepted me as his son. I could never abandon the orphanage since I know the kids always either need a hand with something or need someone to defend them.

I just finished repairing the boiler when he showed up scaring the poor kids playing outside. Gahard always a brute of a guy that never failed to scare the poor kids. "Gahard how many times do I have to tell you not to come here? If you want to see met me you can set an appointment in the Blade mission office."

The guy looked more like a thug than a guy who practices military arts, "Funny you should mention the Heaven Blades, you might not know this but I used to be a major fan of your underground arena fights. The way you killed those guys was simply awesome to see. Actually, I brought some of the pictures I took. You wouldn't mind signing one for fan now would you Layfon? Or you prefer I call you Wolfstein?"

I told the kids the boiler was fixed but they could go and help Leerin with making lunch. The poor kids were happy to get away from the big scary guy. As soon as I knew they were far away from the door I glared at Garhard. Told him to follow me to a nearby cemetery for privacy sake.

I could feel his smug grin on his face as we headed into the graveyard. "Ok, you can drop the friendly act and tell me what you really want to tell me." Gahard was laughing really hard as I said that.

"Honest Layfon I just wanted to show you a couple of my favorite pictures and get your autograph. There really is no need for you to be so defensive." He threw at me an envelope with the pictures. I had to admit they were pictures of me fighting in the underground arena alright, but they been doctored to make it look like I used my Heaven Blade.

I glared at his smiling face when he knew I had a suspicion what he planned to do with these pictures. "Can't get one over you can I Wolfstein, can I? You guess right. I am your opponent in the Heaven Blade Qualification Tournament. Now we both know that it is a major crime to use a Heaven Blade in an underground arena fight. So here is the deal. When we fight you are going to pretend to fight, but in reality, you will let me win. I get your position with the Heaven Blade wielders and I will not make those photos public. I get my rightful position and you get to live and go back to live in that shithole you call an orphanage. Now am I not a nice guy?"

I was madder than when a pervert tried to sneak in the women's public sauna. I been a Heaven Blade for little over a decade, and these pictures were clearly doctored because I would never use that sword for anything other than killing mature contaminoids. "Those pictures are doctored, good job but still fake. Why do you want to be a Heaven Blade so much that you resort to blackmail?"

He smiled a smile that spoke loud and clear how much of a pervert he really was, "Simply because the women that are Heaven Blade wielders are some of the hottest babes in the city. I take your position among them and with my skill I will be rocking those honeys every single night. Who knows I might be able to seduce the Queen and then I will be your King!"

I used external ballistic kei and burned the envelope with the pictures to ashes. I walked over to him glaring at him. "You could just insult me all you wanted and I wouldn't make much of a scene. I got no problem with you insulting me. But you insulted my fellow Heaven Blade wielders who to me they are practically my brothers and sisters, then you made a fatal mistake of insulting the Queen. I will tell you right now my answer to your offer. Bend over and shove up where the sun doesn't shine. In the tournament you as much and insult them again and you will not leave the arena alive."

I walked away from the place and punched a hole in a nearby ruined building causing the building to collapse, that is when I saw Leerin look at me a bit worried. "I guess you heard that you always had such good ears Leerin. Don't worry I will not throw the fight. I will never let that guy soil the Heaven Blades."

She still was worried, "I guess I will have to keep an eye on the kids then, he looks like the kind of guy that would try to hurt the kids once his little scheme fails to get even on you. Layfon why don't you tell the Queen? She could put that guy away in prison. It is a high crime to try to blackmail a Heaven Blade."

I smiled as she said that, I was very lucky to have a friend like her. "I don't need to make our Queen worry about me needlessly. If he needs to resort to this he must not be that strong. I will take care of this, there is no need to worry anyone."

She tried hard to smile and make it look like I was not causing her to worry but I knew her too well to be so easily fooled. She told me the other kids were waiting for me to return to eat lunch with us. "You know Leerin you sometimes treat those kids as if they were our kids and we were their parents." She began to walk away to hide her face from me. I guess I made her blush, too bad she hid her face, she looks absolutely adorable when she blushes.

The day of the tournament came and the big ape did manage to get to the finals as expected by him. I hated the fact that he fought using the same style as my good friend and Heaven Blade. I knowing this knew the exact weaknesses and tactics he would use.

He had not given up using dirty tricks, he had one more just in case I didn't throw the fight. I had an idea he would try something that stupid. As the fight began I evaded every single one of his attacks like it was nothing, "Looks like you will not take my kind deal, well here is another deal in my gauntlet there is a detonator and if you don't let me win, the section where your little girlfriend is will blow up."

This was beyond stupid, it was treason. The section she was seated was the place where the Queen and my fellow Heaven Blades were watching. She was invited to sit on that seat as a guest of honor and a favor to me.

I could not take the chance of him trying to kill her majesty or Leerin. I used one of my most aggressive stances and cut his arm off knowing full well this was more than likely where the trigger of the bomb would be since it was his dominant hand. The minute I did the Queen sent the arena guards to stop me as I was getting ready to chop his head off.

The Queen canceled the tournament and ordered the guards to take Gahard to the hospital and me to the throne room to receive my punishment. I knew what I did was the right thing, and I did see the detonator in the hand as it fell on the ground after I cut his hand off.

"Layfon, why did you do that?" I looked at her and I told her exactly what the vile bastard had told me, including his little bit of blackmail. "I may look young and beautiful Layfon but I am wise enough not to be so easily seduced. You can relax there was no bomb where I, your fellow Heaven Blades or Leerin was seated. It was all a last effort bluff."

I told her I saw the detonator so I had to cut off his hand before he could press it. She smiled and thanked me for caring so much for the safety of my comrades and herself. "That maybe a just cause Layfon, but I imagine you wanted to kill him for his act of treason against me. You always were one of my most loyal Heaven Blades. This makes my next decision most painful. Wolfstein stands and be ready to receive my judgement."

I stood at attention waiting to hear what I feared she would say. "Wolfstein you are hereby removed from the Heaven Blades, your weapon taken from you and are to be exiled immediately from our city. For your years of service, you shall be sent to the Academic City of Zuellni. You shall have a basic scholarship to try and learn a profession so that you may earn a living. The orphanage shall be taken care off by the Saiharden family as your father has informed me."

I was beyond hurt by her words, "Your Majesty I did nothing that was not expected off me. I admit that I did participate in underground arena fights but that was before I became a Heaven Blade and only to provide for the orphans. Why am I being exiled?"

She looked quite sad as she walked near me, "Layfon you were ready to end his life, and I agree that it was the right thing to do under those circumstances. However, the other people in the city will be afraid of you. They will think of you as dangerous as a contaminoid. We can't have the people think of the Heaven Blades as if they were as dangerous as the contaminoids. I am sorry but don't go thinking I or your fellow Heaven Blades are ashamed of you. Think of it as a sacrifice you have to make and know that I will always consider you a Heaven Blade even if you don't have your blade with you."

As I was given a change of clothes, a ticket to the roaming bus that would take me to the Academic City, I saw Leerin and some of my brethren with her. Savaris looked absolutely pissed, "Layfon this is pure bullshit he should be thrown in a nearby incinerator and you should stay with us, who am I going to give me a good challenge when we fight those contaminoids. Life will be too boring without you!"

Linsten was as call as ever or at least that how he looks to me. "Her majesty did as she knew she had to do. I know that she didn't do this lightly. Remember to always watch you're surrounding a spider is only safe in his web. Go but know I am proud of you, my little spider, and I am proud to have you as my student. Don't think we will leave you empty handed either."

Savaris handed him a black Dite and smiled. "These are my old practice gauntlets. You know enough of my family style to use them. Don't let those brats in the egghead city push you around." Lintens gave me a practice Dite that I used to learn my web techniques.

Leerin gave me a hug and a kiss on my cheek. "I don't care what the people in the city think, I don't want you to go." I saw the roaming bus come near us and I hugged her and as I boarded the bus I told her not to worry and be sure take care of the kids.

The bus departed and as they became smaller and smaller I couldn't help but feel sad, the sadness was so much that I simply couldn't even cry. "If only I knew the bastard was bluffing I could have knocked him out, but I was sure there was a bomb there."


	2. Chapter 2

I don't own Chrome Shelled Regios, this is a fanfiction only.

The trip on the roaming bus was nothing if not boring. All I had to fight some minor hatchling contaminoids, the people on the bus were grateful, but I was just bored. When we finally made it to Zuellni I just wanted a hot meal and a shower. Hours of traveling across the desert in that tin can would make anyone smell more than a little.

I managed to get my uniform on during the end of my last fight. I was offered a general studies scholarship and decided to major in business management. It would offer me a good paying job, and relative free time to enjoy life. After what happened in Glendan I didn't want to end up being betrayed like that again.

The city police asked me why did I a general studies student have a Dite? I told her it was for personal protection. You could never know when a fool or a contaminoid would attack after all. She must have been attacked a lot in her childhood because she handed back my Dite and asked me not to kill the fools as I would a contaminod.

There were a lot of new students it seems, it sort of made me feel better if it wasn't for the blonde lady looking at us like an absolute psycho. That is when I saw two military arts students fighting each other in front of a lot of first year students. 'This has the signs of a potential disaster if these two idiots bring out their Dite and kei skills. I better put these two idiots out of commission and fast'

I walked over to them cancelling their attacks as I walked between them, a muscle builder on my right and a casanova wannabe on my left. "Guys if you fight here you might injure other students. How about you take this fight somewhere else or I might have to hurt you."

The muscle builder decided to try and intimidate me try being the keyword. They both saw that it had no effect so they brought out their Dite thinking I would be scared since I was a general studies student. As they tried to attack me I caught the whip Dite and pulled him hard enough to send him at the casanova holding the spear shaped Dite. They both crashed into each other as I brought out the Dite my good friend gave me as a going away present.

"Don't say I didn't warn you. Restoration." My hands had a pair of black gauntlets and I decided to use some steel wire techniques I learned from seeing Linten fight. I whipped both the idiots good, and tied them both up for the city police to pick up. To my surprise the one getting arrested it seems was me. I once again met the same lady officer who I met when I got here.

She became my unofficial escort as she guided me to the student body presidential office. As she told me how things work in the city I was surprised yet again by learning the Academic City was actually governed and maintained by the students. I secretly hoped there were some actual professors teaching the classes or this was going to be a disorderly mess.

I swear I seen that guy as he introduced himself Kalian Loss or so I heard him say. "So Layfon Alseif, I see you are a general studies student majoring in business management. You have a D-rank scholarship. Since you beat those third year students so easily I am transferring you to Military Arts, and I am bumping up your scholarship to an A ranking."

I was not happy about this one bit. "Now hold on a second here, don't you think if I wanted to be in Military Arts I would have applied for that! I didn't for obvious reasons. Why should I accept you suddenly deciding what I should study?"

Kalin put the tablet down on his sofa and looked at me with a rather amused look on his face. "This city has been losing municipal challenges as of late, we have one mine to obtain resources and if we lose that mine this city is as good as dead. So I am afraid to tell you the city's welfare comes first. Now girls be a dear and get him his new uniform. He clearly is wearing the wrong one."

A horde of rather pretty looking girls pretty much stripped me off my uniform and my guide took my Dite so I couldn't exactly stop them. In the blink of an eye I was wearing a rather well fitting military arts student uniform. 'Now what else could go wrong for me today?'

I had to jinx it didn't I. Just when I was forced to change majors the very woman that was looking around like a psycho comes into the office and I really wanted to still have my Dite. I had a very good reason too, since the psycho had me in a headlock as soon as she saw me. "Nina what a wonderful time for a little visit, what could the 17th platoon want with me?"

I had to admit she had a rather nice set of breast since they were being pressed against my back like they were. "I came to request this guy for my platoon. Maggot what is your name?" I sure didn't like to be called that. "First let go of me, second call me maggot again and I will be introducing your head to your colon, lastly I am Layfon Alseif. And I mean right now!"

Nina was smiling like she won the lottery. "Great, you will fit in with the 17th platoon. I like a man who isn't afraid to show that he has some guts. You will feel right at home with us. Now if you will excuse us I got to show my new guy around so he doesn't get lost."

Kalin almost looks like he actually planned the entire thing. Nina became rather chipper as she gave the tour of the building were the other military arts students attended their classes and even showed me where the building were her platoon had a room assigned for their equipment and meetings. "And that ends my tour, before I forget here is your platoon pin and do you have any questions for me?"

I decided to ask her a pair of questions that would get me kicked out of her platoon for sure. "Just two questions actually, how big are your tits? And are you dating anyone special at the moment or can I grab you for myself?" Yep, go with the pervert approach and no woman would want you anywhere near her. Lintens was quite adamant about that when I joined the Heaven Blades.

From the smile on her face I guess my attempt to get kicked out of her platoon failed, "D cup and no I am quite single. But I would have to see if your key fits my lock if you know what I mean. But we can talk about dating later. Like I said I like my guys to have guts."

Was it just me or did anyone else feel that the rather stacked psycho lady wanted to get horizontal with me? I guess I was going to have to work harder to get kicked out of this platoon. I walked towards a large looking lake, "Bullshit, if they have a lake this size they are obviously not hurting for resources."

I decided to stretch out and have a light exercise regimen before heading to the dorm. The walk to the dorm was peaceful and much to my dismay the bastard student president actually had his horde switch out all my clothes for copies of the military arts student uniform. They only left two pants, two white shirts and a leather jacket and of course it was black.

I had a good night sleep and decided to go and eat a healthy breakfast. That is when I learned the reason she was so desperate to get me to stay in her platoon. Platoon rankings apparently meant everything to the people of the city and specially for military arts. Since my platoon was second to last in the ranking I only got a dry bagel and a glass of stale water for breakfast.

After my humble breakfast and done missing my usual breakfast as a Heaven Blade wielder which was much better than what I had to eat this morning. I decided to take the nice and relaxing route to the platoon room. I wish I had not worn the badge at least them I would be able to get a decent breakfast, oh well live and learn.

Nina was her usual psycho self it seems, at least her form fitting under armor gave me something nice to look at. "Ah took the scenic route I see, let me introduce you to the rest of the platoon. Our sniper third year Sharnid Elipton, our Psychokinesis operator Felli Loss also a third year, our mechanic Harley Sutton, then you have me Nina Antalk. This is our new guy Layfon Alseif, Harley give Layfon here a Dite."

She used her Dite which looked like a pair of metal tubes truth be told. "We are just going to spar to determine your position in the platoon for our next competition, so I would take me seriously if I were you or you might get hurt."

If she wanted me to get serious, I guess it's one serving of humble pie for the blonde beauty. It could also kill my chances at dating her but she asked for it, how can I refuse? I looked at Harley as he had a box of practice Dite. "Harley mind giving me a katana? I want to end the show and tell quickly so we can get to work in rising this platoons ranking. My breakfast was horrible and I want to at least eat something nice every once in a while."

Harley nodded his head and told me he too wanted better choices at the cafeteria but the other platoons were really tough as he handed me a green katana Dite, as soon as I deployed my weapon she came at me attacking me at random. 'Who is she kidding, I can block those attacks with my eyes closed.'

I blocked the next attack, seeing she wanted me to get serious I countered with a uppercut to the jaw which knocked her all the way the wall as she fell down. "Looks like the new guy is not so new at fighting. If Nina is not careful she might end up losing her position to him." I looked at Sharnid as he said that.

As Nina clean the blood from her lip she smiled at me. "Can you use external ballistic kei?" I always believed doing instead of wasting time answering. I used my hundred man technique and was loving the stunned look on the faces of my platoon.

Not waiting for her to attack I gave her the beating of a lifetime. She was out cold and it took Sharnid, Felli and Hayle to stop me from continuing my attack. When me and Hayle went with the ambulance we both waited to hear that she would be alright by the next day. Hayle asked how come? He said that I went overboard and he thought that I actually killed her.

The doctor looked at me and she smiled, "He beat her up alright, but he was careful not to hit anything vital. She was knocked out from the sheer amount of pain, but her life was not in anyway in danger. Remind me never to piss you off."

Hayle looked at me confused, "How can you be that good if you are a first year? Nina had three years of training and you beat her! So fess up how are you this strong?" I didn't bother looking at him as I waited for visiting hour to come. He kept on asking over and over not giving up till I answered it seems.

I looked at him as I stood ready to leave and wanting to evade other questions. "I been either training or killing contaminoids most of my life. I lived under the constant threat of those creatures and in my city you win or you die. I will go and tell the others she will be back in a couple of days. You stick around to visit her."

I left and could still feel the glare on the back of my head as I left. Little did I know that I would end up meeting that night since I still had that job cleaning in the machinery department. It was to scrub and clean the surface of the main engine room to prevent the pistons that moved in the room from getting stuck.

To me actually it was rather easy and if I tried to do it as quickly and efficiently as possible it was actually a rather relaxing workout. The pay was nothing to sneeze at either. Nina to my surprise showed up and saw me work. "Hey, Layfon come up and take a break. I got some yummy sandwiches and tasty tea waiting for you."

That didn't sound right but I was more surprised she was allowed to leave the hospital. "I figured you would be royally pissed that I beat you. Why you bring me dinner?" She handed me a few/sandwiches and a cup of sweet smelling tea.

"Far from being angry I was happy that you took me seriously. Hayle told me about what you told him. I began to wonder where you came from that you fought contaminoids child and so often, so Layfon Alseif what was the city that pushed you to be such a fierce warrior just to survive?"

I thanked her for the food and handed her the empty cup and as I got on the lift to continue my work I told her the answer, "The place where I was born, raised me the way I am, and can never set foot on it again is the city of Glendan. I wanted to try a peaceful life here, but it seems no matter where I go battle is my constant companion. Come on we don't have time to chat, we have a fight against another squad soon."

That is when she realized that I was right but was surprised to know that I knew that. "How did you know we fight another platoon tomorrow?" I stop my scrubbing and told her it was hard not to know if Sharnid was running a betting pool on how quickly the other platoon would beat us.


	3. Chapter 3

I don't own Chrome Shelled Regios, this is a fanfiction only.

I glared at Sharnid as he entered the arena waiting area. "You have the nerve to bet against your own platoon! Remind me again can you actually kill your enemy when we do these competitions?" Nina was smiling as she too likes the idea of a little friendly fire to teach him a lesson. Hayle, on the other hand, had to end our little payback dream when he said that there was no actual way to kill each other, there was a dampening field on the arena so at most we could knock each other out.

I decided to go near Nina and asked if I beat most of the enemy would she consider going out on a date with me. "Listen here buster it is not that easy to get a date with a beautiful babe like me, add the platoon flag to that and you got yourself a deal. Do it quickly enough and I am even paying for my half if the cost."

As we walked onto the field we saw the eleventh platoon and they clearly insulted Nina, which earned them a whole lot of pain from your truly. 'Stinking bastards nobody insults the lady I am trying to woe and gets away with it.' Nina was telling Sharnid about how we could win, defeat all of them or capture the flag.

I was doing something else, I deployed my katana and as three of the enemy went after Nina, I decided to cut lose. "External Ballistic Kei: Dragon Spiral." I knocked each of them out when they leader showed up thinking that Nina was done for, big surprise I was waiting for him to land when I caught him and slashed him hard three times across the stomach destroying his armor and exposing his stomach.

I gave him a quick kick to the stomach which knocked him out cold. There was one guy still hiding but I focused in jumping up in the air, "Internal Ballistic Kei: Flashstep." I made a beeline for the flag cut it off and jumped down to where the last guy was hiding and landed right on top of him knocking him out.

I walked over to Nina who was smiling at me as I handed her the flag. "I do hope the other platoons are tougher than this, cause it was just too easy to beat them," I said that as the enemy leader woke up. We all had a good laugh as we saw the look on his face as he realized his platoon lost.

"So I guess that means we got a date, just name the time and day. I am sure we could have some real fun." Nina told me as she hugged me. I looked at Sharnid looking a bit frightened. He quickly explained that betting on his own team had the single worst odds and thus by us winning he made a small fortune. All of which was going to be used to purchase much-needed gear equipment, materials, and better tools for Hayle to work on the platoon dites.

"So you see guys, I would never betray you. I just figured we needed to improve our gear, and Hayle needed better tools and materials for our dite. See you might think I was betting against you but in reality, I was helping the platoon get ready for future matches. So come on Layfon you should take it easy, and tone down your anger. Take a chill pill why don't you!"

I looked at Nina and she had the same thought about this particular subject if her face was telling me anything. "So Nina when do we have our next day off in the machinery department?" She began looking like she was thinking hard to remember when Felli I told us we had today off since we had a match.

That made me wonder two things, first, how did Felli know our work schedule and last did she sound a little jealous when she said that or was it my imagination? I cleared my head of these questions and looked at Nina.

Why was she blushing like that? "Nina how about a traditional student date? A movie, dinner, dancing or a walk through the park? How does that sound to you?" She must have liked it because she actually suggested a rather nice place to get our dinner.

Thanks to the manipulative bastard I didn't have much in a way of civilian attire, let alone something nice to wear for a date. Since I was still sending money to the orphanage on Glendan I didn't want to waste money. I simply bought a pair of pants, shirts, and boots.

That is when I met Felli, "It is rather surprising that you haven't figured it out Layfon. The fight between those two military arts students was planned and done to test your skills. The very same day my brother had one member of our platoon quit creating a vacancy on my platoon. My brother is a despicable bastard that will use anyone or anything in order to win, and yes that includes me."

I looked at her and nodded my head, "I figured as much, there were clues to that fact all day that day. First they let me keep my Dite when I entered the city, the officer showed up too quickly to be answering to a sudden incident and last but not least the uniforms he placed in my room. My left arm is slightly longer than my right. So if they were a rushed order they shouldn't fit as well. I figured he knew I was a former Heaven Blade."

Felli looked more calm hearing me say that, "Good then you knew already. I wanted to tell you so you be ready for the future, but I see that was unnecessary. Mind if I ask you a question? Do you always have your gauntlets deployed or do you think someone will try to get revenge on you for the way you defeated an opponent?"

I looked at her with a serious face or at least I try to look serious, "Truth be told the air here is a little colder than I am used to, so I simply decided to wear my gauntlets for comfort sake. I am a master at the Lukens style of combat so I really don't need them just to defend myself."

This made her ask how could he master such a savage fighting style? I told her that I had a wonderful friend who knew the style, thanks to him and my capacity to be able to learn skills by observation it made it quite easy for me to be able to learn different fighting styles, it was thanks to my friend that I went a set further and indeed mastered the style he uses. It was something that ended up benefiting both of us.

"I learned a new fighting style and my friend gains a good sparring partner, see a win-win situation. These gauntlets I used for my steel cord techniques, I never could master it so I also tend to practice it while I walk from one place to another."

We made it to my dorm room door and excused myself, "Now Felli I hope you don't think of me rude, but I need to shower and get dressed. It simply would not do if I keep my date waiting." That was when I almost saw some emotions on her face, must have been a reflex reaction.

"So who is the lucky lady that is going out on a date with you?" I had no reason to hide it. I told her it was Nina Antalk and I entered my dorm room without realizing she actually was following me inside. I noticed when I heard the door close and I didn't close the door.

I turned around and asked her who gave her permission to enter my dorm room? "I am just going to set your clothes out so they be ready and you can shower without wasting time." I didn't believe a single word of what she said. I told her that it would not be necessary but thanked her for her consideration. I watched as she left my room looking rather upset that her plan didn't work.

I got dressed after my shower and made use of some high-speed techniques to arrive at our meeting point a little ahead of time, I still needed to buy some flowers. The sad thing was that all the flower shops were now closed. I had to improvise and using a few dozen paper sheets and the hobby I learned from watching Leerin I managed to make a rather nice bouquet with some origami flowers.

As Nina arrived she looked rather lovely dressed in those pants, shirt, and vest. I had some real trouble trying not to look down her shirt, the amount of cleavage I was feeling as she hugged me from the back trying to surprise me was nothing to sneeze at. I turned around and gave her the bouquet I just finished making.

"Sorry Nina, I wanted to buy you some real roses but it seems Felli felt it necessary to tell me her brother might want to use me for something in our future competitions. That took most if the time I initially wanted to use to buy you some flowers. You look lovely by the way."

Nina asked me how in the world did I know how to make the bouquet? As we walked towards the movie theater I told her I learned thanks to a childhood friend, I also told her that I also knew how to mend clothes, knit, cook, and do minor Dite maintenance.

She asked me why did I know so many things. "I had no assurance that I would ever fall in love, or that my future wife knew how to do these things. The Saiharden family motto is to be prepared for every situation and thus avoid regrets in the future." I guessed she must be either impressed or she was not expecting that from a guy, she was speechless for a little bit.

The movie was fun, it was a rather interesting romance, science fiction, adventure type of film, or maybe I should say it was fun for her because to me it was secretly pissing me off as the film went on. Why was I angry you ask? Well there are several reason, the first the movie was what I call a bastardization of how I became a Heaven Blade. The film depicted a greedy bastard getting lucky and winning the Heaven Blade qualification tournament through shall we say questionable means.

Second the flame implied that he was so greedy he only became a Heaven Blade either for his own financial wealth or fame with the opposite sex, and last but certainly not least was implied that he was allowed to enter the tournament because he secretly was the lover of the Queen of Glendan. Had the filmmaker not changed the names and appearance of the people in the movie I was more than likely going to go up to where this film was being stored and burn it.

Nina at the end of the torture session or should I say movie decided to have dinner in a local café while she wanted to discuss the film, apparently she didn't agree with the supposed motivations of the male protagonist and only enjoyed the actual fighting and action seems. "Layfon you have any idea how someone so greedy can reach such a honorable position? Defender of the realm and the Royal family was something I figured only extremely honorable people would try to be."

I could not help it, I had to tell her the entire film was a false representation of my life. "I am ashamed to say it Nina, but I am a former Heaven Blade wielder. I did become as you said a defender of Glendan and the Royal family, but I never even thought of my own fame, fortune or ever sleep with the Queen."

Nina was taking a sip of her drink when I said that, so she choked a little from the surprise, she if course recovered and asked me no end of questions. She asked me about the Heaven Blades, the qualification tournament and only stopped when she asked me about my family.

"I fought in underground arena fights and did do it for money, but never used my Heaven Blade or was it for myself. I was born an orphan you see Nina, and growing up in the orphanage I sort of felt like the other orphans were like my brothers and sisters. I was adopted by the master of the Psyharden Style of combat, Derk Saiharden. The city does not provide aid to the orphanage you see."

We had finished our meal and know was answering her questions, she was really interested from what I could tell. I took a sip of my tea and continued.

"I only fought in the underground arena to provide funding to the orphanage, how could I not? My little brothers and sisters were barely making enough to feed themselves. Glendan has a fate I would say, that the city while other cities avoid contaminoids Glendan actively searches to encounter as many contaminoids as it possibly can."

I finished my drink and as she finished her drink I called for a waitress and paid for the dinner. We took a walk through the park as she told me it must have been horrible to fight one wave of contaminoids after another. I told her that I did get to rest. Contaminods don't stick in large groups since if they was nothing to eat they would turn on each other.

"When you are born and grow up in that city you don't even think about it. It almost seem natural to be constantly be fighting contaminoids, fighting was a major aspect of my life. My childhood friend used to joke that I had to be a berserker in a previous life."

As we walked towards the dorms and specially her room she told me how her family didn't want her to study the military arts, that she had to run away and since the scholarship only covered tuition, and boarding costs she ended up working in the machinery department. "I like the electronic fairies, Zuellni is a good friend of mine. So I tend to go a little gung-ho when it comes to competitions. I mean what kind of a friend would I be if I didn't help my friends?"

As we reached her dorm room door I thanked her for a wonderful evening and kissed her hand as I was ready to leave, she grabbed me by my shoulders turned me around as I was about to leave and gave me such a passionate kiss on my lips that left me breathing hard when it ended. "Thank you for being honest with me and trusting in me to share your life story with me. Let's do this again Layfon."

She said that and ran inside her room and left me looking at her door as it closed. I walked back to my dorm room to find Sharnid was waiting for me. "It's not nice to use your rifle scope to spy on my date Sharnid." He told me he was not spying he was guarding.

"You might not think so but you got an enemy in this city, and after I heard you know the Lukens style of combat I had to watch out for you. The guy who really hates your guts is named Gorneo, Gorneo Lukens."


	4. Chapter 4

I don't own Chrome Shelled Regios, this is a fanfiction only.

I for one was not surprised that I had a person with a bone to pick with me, my life had been a constant conflict so this was nothing knew. The thing that surprised me was that it was Savaris' little brother that had a grudge against me. I considered Savaris as close as a brother in all things except blood. To have the guy who was basically my little brother hate me that much was a surprise.

Nina was if anything very supportive which was another thing I was happy to see. In the first week, we had five competitions and each and everyone one ended the same way. Let's face it compared to the things I did as a Heaven Blade these competitions could only be called one thing, and that thing was boring.

There was no challenge, no difficulty. The steal the flag type felt like taking candy from a sleeping baby, and the team combat made me feel more like a bully than a fighter. The only upside to this was that winning had the positive effect of making most of my team real happy. Felli was upset that I actually was falling in line with what her idiot brother schemed.

"Say Nina want to go out on a date on our next day off?" I looked at Nina as I asked her during our lunch break. She smiled and something tells me she was happy about me asking her out, but even I was not expecting what she would reply to my question.

"You know Layfon we been dating for over a week, and I think we pretty much know each other well. How about we do something daring? Dinner and dancing or a movie are fine, but how about a picnic, some training and maybe get you to show me a few of those abilities you can do with your gauntlets. I even have something to ask you, but let's do that after our date."

Not once she had asked me to used my old gauntlets, not even for a competition. I saw no problem at all in actually letting her see those abilities. As I walked towards my dorm after a long night of scrubbing and cleaning in the machinery department I saw someone I was now expecting.

"So tell me Fon Fon, what is it about our squad leader you like so much that you are actually fighting so fiercely at the competitions?" I for one hated that little nickname she came up for me. I looked at her and wanted to tell her something along the lines of I like her nice rack, but that would be perverted and not entirely true. Her physical appearance was only one thing I liked about Nina.

"I like spending time with her and we do spend quite a bit of time in our job. As for me fighting fiercely you and the others haven't even seen me do a decent warm up yet. These competitions are so dull and so easy I could probably do it with my eyes closed."

I walked away not knowing someone was actually listening to our conversation. As I reached for the door I heard something move and it came from one of the branches of a nearby tree. A small girl came at me with a spear. I was simply to tired of being considerate to my attacker, I grabbed the spear broke it in half and gave my attacker a sound beating.

I left as she hit the ground unconscious, "Fon Fon that monkey you just beat is the good friend of Gorneo Luckens. Don't you think you went a little overboard by beating her like that?" As I opened the door to my dorm I looked back at my unconscious would be assassin.

"Should I show mercy to a person who tried to kill me? Would you do that Felli?" She wanted to argue that it would make things easier between me and Gorneo but I would hear none of it. I went to the phone in my room and asked for his phone. The operator did something better he actually connected me with him.

"What do you want?" Boy, this was going to be an absolute joy of a conversation. "Look I don't need your attitude. Your little monkey girl just tried to kill me. I know you have a bone to pick with me, but this assassination attempt was pathetic. Now I got some training tomorrow, and little to no patience left. So I will give you thirty minutes to come and pick this piece of garbage or I am calling the city police and press charges. If they don't come I might even consider the dorm trash incinerator. So shut your food hole and come and get this thing."

I slammed the phone on the receiver and I saw the shocked look on her face. "Relax Felli, I am not placing charges or putting her in the incinerator. That was to make him come get her as fast as possible."

Felli looked a bit relaxed as I told her that. She got done treating her injuries while I talked to Gorneo. "With the tone in your voice, I would not put it past you doing such things Fon Fon. It was rather scary hearing you say that."

It took twenty minutes for the guy to get to my dorm room, and he had the manners of a bull running through a porcelain doll display if the way he knocked was any indication. I took my would be killer and opened the door. I threw her at him and the broken Dite. "Be sure to remind her that I was within my rights to kill her, and I would not be in any sort of legal trouble. I got too much on my life to have to deal with this."

Gorneo looked at her and he could tell I was not kidding. "I guess she heard me complain about how you cowardly ruined my mentor's life." That was what he had a grudge on me for? I was now royally pissed off.

"Gahard knew I never used my Blade to fight in those underground arena fights, he also knew the only reason I fought was to support an orphanage I once lived in, there is no aid for orphanages from the government in Glendan. He doctored some images to blackmail me into throwing a fight in a Heaven Blade Qualification match when that didn't go his way he tried to kill me."

"Taking an arm only was downright merciful of me. You don't believe me go to Glendan it was a televised. Now if you will excuse me I need to see what a teammate needed from me, and then I need to go to sleep."

He looked like he wanted to call me a stinking liar, but he looked like he had realized that he might not have his facts straight.

I looked at him and told him something he probably would later use against me, but in all honesty, I could not stop myself from telling him this even if I tried. "Savaris Lukens is a brother to me in all things except blood. Talk to him little brother, if I come to see you I rather it be at in a friendlier manner and if we must fight let it be in a place I know you will survive."

I left the place and decided to go back to my dorm room and somehow I had a bad feeling that something was going to happen when I got there and if this feeling was any indication it was not going to be pleasant.

I got back into my dorm room to find Felli looking rather upset. "Felli why the bad mood? And how did you get in my room? I don't think I left a spare key anywhere."

She looked at me and glared. "My selfish, idiotic and scheming brother gave me a key. He wanted to make sure you came with me back to our home for dinner. I am only guessing but it might have to do with your past."

I didn't like that one bit. "Could you tell him to reschedule it? I just dealt with an assassination attempt, I am not in the mood to discuss something from my past. I don't have my Heaven Blade if that is what he wants to know. It was taken from me when I had my position and title removed by the Royal family in Glendan."

Felli for some reason smiled as she finished hearing me say that. "Sure, I will tell that worthless piece of garbage that I found you asleep and that from the dishes on your living room table you already had dinner. I am sure he will not be happy, but he will be reasonable since he obviously wants to ask you to do something."

I held out my hand and she understood what I wanted. She placed the key she got from her brother in my hand and left. I decided to get to bed when I realized I couldn't go to sleep. I changed into my work clothes and left as fast as I could.

As I got there Nina was nowhere to be seen, I guessed she must be late so I started my work. I continued until I was half done and I heard someone call my name. I looked up and saw Nina looking at me, calling my name and waving her hand at me.

"Layfon I been trying to get your attention for the last ten minutes. I heard people having tunnel vision but that is simply ridiculous." I looked at her and smiled. "I figured that you either you were tired or too busy with other things. I was trying to finish all the work alone and let you rest. An attempt of trying to be kind to the love of my life."

That made her blush and kiss me I guess nobody ever did something like that for her. "While I am happy of your good intentions, need I remind you we have another competition match tomorrow? I know you are tough but I don't want you to go to that competition sleep deprived."

I took the sandwich box she kindly offered me. "I wouldn't worry too much. These competitions are next to nothing compared to the things I had to deal with on Glendan. It's just that Zuellni keeps avoiding contaminods. The students in this city have no idea how horrible it is for a novice to fight a larva of one of those things."

I was not too excited to face yet another group of as far as I was concerned a group of rookies. Unlike before it was a direct combat competition. The rules stipulated that the squad with their members knocked out or unable to fight loses the competition. I decided to go in using my gauntlets only.

I had the other squad jumping, ducking and sliding trying to get away from my attacks. Sharnid and Felli were smiling as one by one our opponents ended up getting caught in my traps. I used by oldest steel wire technique and before long I had everyone but the captain do an impression of a bunch of flies caught in my web.

The captain used a staff dite and that made it rather simple for me to go in using the Luken style of fighting. I gave him what to me amounted to friendly taps, until he decided to insult Nina calling her a big boobs blonde bimbo who was better suited to being a whore. I was seeing red as he said that.

'Felli could you call the EMT team. I am sending this guy to intensive care.' Felli smiled and I knew I had her support for what I had in mind. Using the most painful techniques I learned from this style I beat the idiot so badly he was going to be in a full body cast for the rest of the year, and that was because the rest of the team held me back from trying to kill the idiot.

The crowd learned two very important things watching this competition. One was that I was very much in love with Nina, much to the disappointment of quite a few ladies watching the competition. The second thing was never and I mean never insult Nina, or face the wrath of her overprotective lover.


	5. Chapter 5

I don't own Chrome Shelled Regios, this is a fanfiction only

I had to admit cleaning and working in the machinery department was a very nice way to relax. Compared to the things that I had to go through during my training days as a Heaven Blade this was as easy as a morning jog to most people. Some of my coworkers did look at me like I was a major weirdo when I started to sing the song from an old movie I watched with dad. I guess nobody else liked the song whistle while you work.

As I got up for my lunch break Nina made it just in time for my lunch period. 'Good thing I made extra today it seems, I wonder why has Nina been looking more tired than usual these days.' I waved at her and she tried to hide her fatigue as well as she could by smiling and walking where I was seated.

The thing that sort of caught me by surprise was that Zuellni actually became more friendly towards me as my relationship with Nina became more intimate and it almost felt like she actually approves of our relationship. I saw her trying to get a sandwich from my lunch basket. I even thought it was sort of cute in a way.

I began helping Zuellni get the wrapper off the sandwich she clearly wanted when Nina finally made it to where I was. "Seems she knew you were hungry. So tell me lover why do you look like a gang of thugs beat you up?"

She laughed and said that it probably would have felt better if it did happen, she took the sandwich and took a bite of it. "I realized that we are too dependent on you for our competitions, I been training hard to try and be better so that should you be unable to compete I can keep our squad's standing in the rankings."

I understand what she was saying but somehow I couldn't agree with her methods. Constant and continuous training was better than training like she did. Her body had little chance to recover and grow at the rate she was planning to go.

"Truth be told, the rankings and municipal competitions are the least of my worries. You may think I am wrong, but that is only because you never seen or fought a contaminoid. Those things grow meaner as they age, meet one that has given up reproducing and you will see what a living nightmare looks like. It takes no less than a three man squad of Heaven Blades to take one of them out. I should know, I been in such a squad more times than I care to remember."

I finished off my sandwich and looked like she was not sure what I was telling was true or not. "Look Layfon you might not know this but cities like this need resources and the most valuable resource comes from being owner of a mine. The municipal competitions are where we gain or lose rights to the mines. This city only has one left, and if we lose that then this city is pretty much dead."

I knew that Nina loved this city, but sometimes I wondered if it was that she loved the city or just Zuellni. Zuellni was pretty much the heart and soul of the city. Even I never met the one that lived in Glendan, even though I spent years protecting that city. I finished my sandwich and got ready to continue working.

She was about to enter the lift when I stopped her. "Look lover if you are going to train hard enough to end up this beat up, I'll take care of the rest of this shift. You relax and spend sometimes with Zuellni. Don't get me wrong but something tells me it will make both of you happy."

I continued doing my work and as I did I remembered some of the people that I once called my family. I remembered my days fighting in the underground arena fights, and also how easily the Queen decided to exile me. I never admitted it to anyone, but I felt betrayed when she told me my punishment.

I finished my shift and went up on the lift to find Nina was still waiting for me. I decided to walk her to her place. It didn't take a genius to figure out that her walking alone was just begging for trouble. I still couldn't figure out how she made it home before I met her. Probably before she took her dite everywhere with her.

"Layfon don't take this the wrong way, but in the last competitions I got this feeling you were actually holding back or that you didn't fight to the best of your abilities. So as platoon leader let me ask you a favor. In the next training session please show us how strong you are when you fight at your best."

I didn't say anything till we reached the dorm building where her place was at. "I will show you how strong I am but I have some conditions. One we keep it a secret, two please understand that I can be quite scary when I fight without holding back, and lastly don't let this make feel bad about yourself. I don't want to see you risk your life training to reach my level. This took me years of training and fighting through a living hell. I don't want you to go through that if I can help it."

It was to my dissatisfaction than the next training session was the next day. The training session involved hitting these automated target robots. The score was shown in a large screen over the entrance to the training field. The score was based on how quickly, efficiently, we disabled the targets. It also measured how powerful our attacks were and how many targets we disabled.

Each point of the score would be added and a level was given depending on the score. Typically my level without trying was a level nine, but my significant other wanted to see me fight at full strength. This was going to cause quite the stir if my score and level was ever known to the other squads.

I never broke a promise and I was not going to do that now. I took my dite and began fighting against the target robots. This was a joke at best and a sad waste of time at worst. Most targets were down with a single hit, and using kei abilities I took down multiple of them in a single strike. By the time the claxon sounded signaling the end of my session I walked towards my squad. They each had a shocked look on their faces.

"What? Do I have something hanging or did my fly came undone?" Nina took hold of me and walked me outside to see my own score. There were no spaces left for numbers in the line where my score was. I didn't see anything wrong. Level 99 didn't seem that impressive truth be told.

"The leader of the student body has the highest score of Level 60. You blew past his score and you even looked bored while doing it!" I just walked in and sat down on a bench.

"I told you Nina these competitions are next to nothing to me. I spent years fighting against contaminoids on a regular basis. That is normal life if you live in Glendan. Contaminoids only care about two things at most and that is eating or reproduction. They don't care about how many mines a city controls, just how much food can they get out of it."

The others looked at me some with a look of awe and sometimes disbelief. I didn't understand why they were looking at me in such a way. I just got up and decided to listen to what Nina seem to want to talk with me in private. I walked up to her told hold of her arm with mine and proceeded to follow her as he leaned on me.

I could only guess that they had no idea that we are in fact a couple, and for the most part I loved her dearly. As we got away she began to get more and more serious, until finally we were sitting right next to each other on a bench.

"Layfon I love you and I know you love me, but for now I need you to be objective on what I need to know. Is there a way for me and the others to reach your level and can we do it as quickly as possible?" I began to look at my hands and began doing calculations in my mind, projections about what could go wrong and probably damage control.

"Sharnid needs a wake up call, he is too laid back before we consider training him. Felli is so obsessed with rebelling against her brother's control that she would fail any training just to make her brother think he has failed in his assumed goals. Lastly you are so suicidal in your devotion to save this city that without proper self control and patience the training would kill you therefore making the reason for the training null and void."

She looked depressed as she listened to me. I took hold of her hand and smiled. "Steady training under high pressure situations will have the results you desire for this squad, but it will take no less than nine months of continuous training. This training is called by my mentor do or die training. I am not kidding Nina, if you are not careful or try to do more than the training says it could harm you and even kill you."

"I went through that training every day I was a Heaven Blade. There were times the pain was so severe I wished that I could die to make the pain stop. If I ever said it out loud he smacked on the back of my head so hard I kissed the floor. He would say never to give up, cause once your dead it's all over. Your life, everything you are or ever were gone forever."

I watched as the others came to where Nina and I were. "With abilities like that Layfon we will be the undisputed champions of this city. I can practically see all those love letters from our adoring fans." Damn it sometimes I forget that Sharnid is a womanizer.

"You want love letters from total strangers? Me, I am perfectly happy with the steady relationship I have with my lover." I sure wasn't expecting Nina to say that to the rest of the squad. She even linked her arm with mine and pulled me close enough for me to feel her press against me.

I quickly drew up a schedule for each member of the platoon. I focused on their weakest skills first, make your weakest attack your strongest and everything else will improve. I fully expected at least one of them to complain, but no one did. Felli just said that having any excuse to be away from her brother was good enough for her.

I went to the meeting and I found out the supposed meeting was happening in their home. Felli was struggling to cook as she had a hard time peeling a potato. "Let me help you with that Felli. Let's see what I can do with this."

I began cooking a meal with my badly cut ingredients. "So tell me FonFon where did you learn to cook?" I placed the chicken in the oven and regulated the temperature as I closed it. I began working on the potatoes and other dishes on the stove.

"Is it really that surprising to you? I grew up in an orphanage in Glendan. The city doesn't provide for anything to orphans, and so we had to learn to do many things for ourselves. Cooking, cleaning, repairs, first aid and such. We all had to pitch in regardless of age or gender."

She asked me if I ever cooked with girls. I told her of course I did, but at the very least they knew how to peel a potato.

As we finished eating dinner her brother did something I never expect. "Thank you Layfon, that was the best meal I had in years. I can't remember the last time I had a warm home cooked meal." Felli wanted to kick me for doing something that made her idiot brother happy, but I had a knife so she wisely reconsidered doing that.

"So what do you need to talk to me about? You know I am quite busy with work, the platoon and my love life." He just set down a diagram of the city. He asked me to look it over and think of ways to make it easier to defend against contaminoids.

"Since you lived in Glendan I imagine you have quite a few ideas as to how to better defend a city against those monsters than we do. So tell me Layfon what would you change?"

I began seeing some key weaknesses as I studied the blueprint of the city. "The city pretty much moves on these legs I would place rapid fire turrets on these points, and a few electrical plates on the exterior in case of climbers, and I don't see a sensor sonar array anywhere on it."

"The city sends shockwaves through the ground simply because of the weight it carries, a simple array of sound sensors and imaging system would pretty much warn us if the city is anywhere near an underground contaminoid nest. Those things are huge so trust me they would be very easy to identify."

He looked at me and smiled. I got the feeling he was thinking about this already. "If we had a few more mines that would be easy to implement, but sadly we only have one mine and it's not that productive for us. Any ideas that will be cost effective?"

Now I was sure that he had thought of the same thing. "Cost effective? Alright I got one. Stop training your military arts students just for municipal challenges. You need to stop babying them and treat their training as a matter of life and death! Compared to what contaminoids can do, your training regiment is a joke."


	6. Chapter 6

I don't own Chrome Shelled Regios, this is a fanfiction only

I had to admit that the squad was doing better than I expected. Indeed Sharnid was actually shaping up to be a rather deadly sniper, and Felli had better control of her abilities. As I remember from what I knew of her abilities, control and energy management was they keys for a successful Neni-operator.

The idea was that with better control she could multitask a lot longer and better. Nina was finally coming out of her self sacrificing tendencies, and slowly started to rely on the other members of her squad.

We had won every challenge so far, and at the pace we were going it was not difficult to see that we might actually end up on the team for the municipal challenge.

I decided since things were going so well that I might as well ask Nina out. "Nina how do you feel about us going to eat something after today's training, just the two of us?"

I know my question would catch her off guard, but till even I have to admit I didn't expect her to blush like this. I mean I been intimate with her on several nights by now, but she still blushes like this?

"Layfon you do realize that Felli can listen to us right? Don't we have work in the machinery maintenance department tonight? Also why are you being so bold and asking me out on a date in public?"

Well I sure didn't expect that many questions for something like this. "Felli knows you have a lover, thanks to what you said. We can go to work after we eat if you want to get the work over with sooner, and I love you. What is wrong with wanting to eat a meal, in a nice place, with the woman I love?"

She kept trying to say something, but as soon as her mouth opened to say it she said nothing and closed it. She did this a few times. I guess she was examining her potential choices for an answer.

"As long as we cut the bill in half, and we each pay our half I have no problem with it. Aren't you tired Layfon? We been training since dawn and it's noon already."

I just sat down next to her and pulled her close to me. "Not really, this sort of stuff is no more than a warm up for me. You think this is bad, the training will only get gradually tougher. This training is not to beat some challenge, it's to be able to fight contaminoids. And make no mistake this city will eventually run over a nest. All cities do no matter how careful they are."

I saw the look on the faces of several of my squad members. Sharnid was the first to complain and I guess I really was not that surprised that he did. "Layfon you keep this up and the contamoinds will not even get to fight us. You will train us into an early grave if you keep this up."

I was smiling as Nina walked over to him and gave him an open handed slap to the back of his head. "At least someone in the squad knows why I am doing this. Look Sharnid this is next to nothing compared to the daily training of a Heaven Blade. You want to be considered the toughest military artist don't you? Want to be a chick magnet don't you? Then quit complaining and pay the price so you can get your jollies later."

This made Sharnid blush and surprisingly enough so did Felli. The training ended by the evening cause me and Nina still had go to our job in the machinery department. As we both walked towards home, I felt her arm link itself with mine, and she began to walk while holding my hand.

"Don't you worry lover, they are getting better and the training is barely started. We will keep Zuellni safe, so you don't need to sneak off for your extra training sessions. Don't even try to deny it, I know you. You worry me sometimes you know, how do you think you got home after you collapsed on the sand? I carried you."

Nina could not deny that she had been training a lot harder than the rest of the squad put together, well except for me, but having to carry your lover and climb up the wall, go through a window just because she didn't have her keys with her was a pain but she was worth it.

"So that explains why I woke up naked that time, did you have to take off all my clothes?" I looked at her and told her I needed to give her a bath to regulate her body heat or else she was going to catch a flu.

"We had a competition the next day if you remember, and I know you would hate to miss it just because you got sick. Speaking of which you better give me a copy of your front door key."

She laughed and looked at me, "There is a spare key in the under the flower pot by my dorm room door. Since these guys are doing so good, why don't you come later tonight so I can make feel really good."

Felli was glaring daggers at her and blushing at me, I never understood what the hell was going in her mind. It's like she was my jealous girlfriend and she was glaring at another girl making an attempt to flirt with me. I know for a fact that her brother would never allow me or anyone to date his baby sister.

Make me feel good was of course an understatement, as I felt Nina touch my body I felt great. "See don't you feel a lot better, a hot bath, and a massage from me. I can finally do something about all this stress you been putting up with. Something the matter? Or is it something you can't tell me?"

I looked at the wall as she rubbed my back, "It's not that it's a big secret or anything, but I been meeting a lot with the student president lately, it seems Zuellni is slowly changing her path towards areas that are more known to have a high degree of contaminods. I guess he wants to use me if the worst come to happen."

"My guess is that she just wants to make a certain battle hungry guy happy. You seen how she hangs around when we are doing the cleaning in the machine department. I swear if I didn't see you act like a father figure, I would be pretty jealous."

I couldn't help but to smile as I turned around causing her to fall on top of me and held her tight against me. "You act like a mother figure to her too, so don't you worry. We will do our best to keep our little girl safe, but now let's talk about the other subject we need to talk about."

She laughed as I finished saying that, "The only subject I want to know is the future change of address, and by that I mean do you live in my place or do I move into yours?"

I honestly am happy that she said that, considering the looks our fans have been giving during training, I am sure happy that she wants it to be known that she is mine, and I am hers.

"Well actually my place is rather small, I don't think my closet has enough space for all your clothes, and I don't have a cabinet for all your makeup." She punched me lightly on my shoulder and smiled.

"Well buster first I don't have that many clothes, second of I don't wear makeup. All this that you see is one hundred percent natural. Now come on let's go to sleep, we got to get up bright and early tomorrow."

Training continued as I planned but there was something that I didn't plan on. Apparently from what President Loss told me our city was on course to meet with another city. It could be a municipal challenge if everything was going well, but since the other city was not moving I knew better than to hope for the best situation.

Once a city like our stop moving, it basically becomes one giant buffet dish for contaminoids, and make no mistake about it, they will attack and devour everything edible inside it.

Our squad was one of the two squads that were going to be sent to investigate if there were any survivors. As I walked towards our ride I couldn't help but to notice how some of the people were staring at me. "I guess not everyone is happy about our relationship, or it is something I don't know about?"

She laughed as soon as she got in the side car of our motorcycle. "I guess there are a few that wished they would get a chance to go on a date with me. Can you blame them? There is also a rather nasty rumor going around that you are a complete womanizer and have tried to seduce no less than five women at the same time."

I tried to remain calm as I heard her say that, "You know full well that I am spoken for, and I would never in your wildest nigthmares would even think about doing something that would endanger our relationship. Now come on the sooner we check that city out, the sooner we can get back to whipping our squad into shape."

As we took off and I directed the vehicle towards the city we were sent to inspect, she said something that caught me by surprise. "You don't think there is any survivors do you? You can try to hide it my love but it is quite easy to read from the expression on your face."

I knew very well what we would find, and my old enemies sure didn't do much to disappoint me. The city was as empty as a graveyard. The city was littered with the discarded shells of many small size contaminoids.

I looked up and so the ones from the larger ones hanging up on the support structure of the city, makes sense as they get to that size walking is no longer they preferred means of getting around it's flying.

"Like I said during one of our training sessions, the municipal challenge might as well be considered a sporting event. This is what military arts are for, to prevent this from ever happening. To fail would mean death and destruction on this scale, and as you can see contaminoids aren't what you would call picky eaters."

She looked at the place I was pointing and was almost sad to see the half chewed up remains of a dog collar. Just as we began walking through the empty section that had been probably once the premier dating site in this particular city, one of the large discarded shells came crashing down.

I got us both out of harms way but had I been distracted the shell would have hit us. I knew this was no accident, and there is no way that shell fell on it's own. I immediately started to look for the culprit.

I found him smugly looking at us, should have known Gorneo was still carrying that grudge against me for what I did to his mentor. He jumped down thinking that I was still a little dazed from the way the shell must have hit me.

I knew his fighting style better than he did, and blocked his attack with little effort. "Damn it! What will it take for you to die! When will I be able to avenge the murder of my mentor!"

Sometimes I really wish I had the foresight to seal his mouth shut with my iron wire techniques. Nina looked at me a little surprised as she heard what Gorneo just said. "What does he mean by murder Layfon?"

"He is the former student of one of the people who got me exiled from my home city. I lived in an orphanage most of my life, and Glendan does not provide money to charitable organizations, even orphanages. They have a mentality of surviving through difficult times with your own efforts."

"I fought in underground arena competitions to earn enough money to keep the kids in my orphanage healthy, well fed, and clothed. His mentor tried to use that as a means to blackmail me. He doctored pictures making it look like I was using my Heaven Blade to win my arena fights."

Gorneo was looking at me with pure disdain as I said that, "When do you plan to tell her that these fights were fought to the death? My mentor had no need to doctor any video, he was more skilled than you ever were, he deserved to be a Heaven Blade more than you."

I had enough of this and decided to tell him something to put this whole thing to a rest. "All fights on Glendan are to the death, the people and especially the Queen would have no less. You win, you live. You lose, you die."

"Her majesty simply didn't want other people to know a secret, a secret that would kill millions. You look at the shell you just dropped on me, and tell me how does something grow to be that size? Why is it that contaminoids live for not a few decades but some live for hundreds of years."

I decided to leave him with that little mental exercise. It was no secret that if the truth had been known, if people knew where Kei power really came from, then all of us military artists would be considered no better than a contaminoids.

"Layfon did you really kill people in those arena fights?" Nina just had to ask. I was hoping that with all the things Gorneo was told she would forget about it.

"Yes, Nina and they knew the risk as well as I did. They also tried to kill me too." I decided to walk over to her and place my arms around her waist and pull her into a hug, she leaned and pressed her head against my chest.

"I would also kill to keep you safe too, I love you Nina. Don't let that mentor worshiping fool make you think otherwise. Come on, we got a lot of city left to look and I wouldn't put it past them for other contaminoids to be lying in wait."


End file.
